Weapons Station Faces Fines For Toxic Dump Sites

November 19, 1992|By JENNIFER ANDES Daily Press

YORKTOWN — The Environmental Protection Agency could fine the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station thousands of dollars a week for environmental violations.

The fines are in addition to the $40 million that the government estimates it will have to pay to cleanup the contaminated soil and water at the site, which has been added to the EPA's Superfund priority cleanup list.

Navy, state and EPA officials expect to have an outline on the cleanup process within the next few months, says Robert Thomson, EPA remedial project manager.

The agreement will include a penalties clause for missed deadlines, Thomson says, adding that the penalties could be as much as $10,000 a week depending on the agreement terms.

The weapons station is among 33 sites added to the Superfund list in October, bringing the nationwide total to 1,208, EPA public information officer Terri White says.

Of those sites, 123 are federal facilities.

The Yorktown site is among nine out of more than 200 active weapons stations in EPA Region 3 on the priorities list, adds Thomson.

Region 3, which is based in Philadelphia, includes sites in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Other sites will be added as data is collected and assessed, says Thomson.

Tom Black, public affairs officer at the weapons station, says contractors have not yet determined the extent or exact locations of the contamination, but he estimates cleanup costs will exceed $40 million.

However, Black says, inclusion on the Superfund list is fortunate only because the weapons station is virtually assured of getting cleanup funds.

The weapons station, Black adds, "is no more guilty of past practice than private industry or anybody else. In the past, it was easy to dump waste in a ravine, cover it up and forget about it."

The first step in the cleanup process is to find the waste and determine whether any of the toxins have leached off of the weapons station.

"So far nothing has gone beyond our fence that we are aware of," Black says, adding, "That's not to say we don't have a problem."

Stuart Ridout, director of public affairs for the state Department of Waste Management, agrees that the site is not an immediate threat to public health because no one lives on the site.

However, he says he would like the site cleaned to remove all potential concern.

Wastes that have been dumped on the weapons station from the 1920s to about 1980 include:

* toxic solvents such as engine degreasers

* oil and paint

* acid batteries and hydraulic fluids

* scrap metal

* chemicals such as acetone

* fly ash

* trace metals such as lead, zinc and mercury

* dust from grinding glass lenses

* explosive contaminants

Robert Huggett, head of the environmental sciences department at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary, says contaminants found at the weapons station that are not moving may be left in the soil rather than dug up.

He explains that waste removed from the soil has to be contained and disposed of safely; waste sitting dormant in soil is already secure as long as it isn't harming animals or leaching off the base.

Environmental contractors are sampling aquatic animals, in addition to soil and water, to make sure the public won't have to worry about tainted fish, Huggett says.

Studies are so preliminary, he did not predict when scientists might have results from the sampling.

Aquatic animals are the most likely to be contaminated because waste materials left in the soil or water tend to leach into area waterways such as ponds, lakes and rivers, he says.

To test aquatic animals, scientists extract fluids from the animals and use organic solvents to remove human-made chemicals.

They then analyze the chemicals, says Huggett, a marine scientist for 25 years who specializes in the transport of hazardous chemicals.

Black says he is not sure if scientists intend to sample land animals for contaminants.

However, he says, deer hunted on the base are always weighed and visually inspected for any deformities. Hunting season opens Saturday, he says.

Black adds that the weapons station is studying its inventory of more than 1,800 toxic and flammable materials to find less-toxic substitutes, even though the substitutes may be more expensive.

For example, new refrigerants are being tested as replacements for freon.

Further, he says, the weapons station traditionally has used nine types of paint to paint missiles. "We're trying to standardize with one type of paint."